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He lifted an eyebrow. “We almost crashed the last time.”

“Because I let go of the branch at the wrong time and it hit your wing. I’ll know better now.”

He continued to stare at her blandly, tilting his head as if to say,
Seriously?

“Please?” This time she added a completely ridiculous batting of her eyelashes.

One corner of his mouth lifted. It was a rare reaction from the Gloresti, and it had Olivia clapping her hands together like she had seen Skye do a number of times. “Yay!” she exclaimed. She scooted forward on her branch and moved closer to him.

Bracing himself on two of the thicker branches, he stood with innate balance and assisted her to her feet. “I do not see how you made the climb in that gown, anyway.”

Another laugh escaped her. She had become rather partial to the flowing, ankle-length sundresses gifted to her by some of the Estilorians’ hospitality class, the Lekwuesti. They were very comfortable. It hadn’t been that difficult to hike the skirt up enough to climb, but she could see how something like that would perplex him.

Then he pulled her so that her back was pressed against his front. The top of her head rested against his chest, an inch or two under his chin. His arms encircled her waist. Together, they edged closer to the end of a long branch.

When it started to bow toward the ground, he said, “Okay.”

She moved perfectly in synch with him, her long legs helping to propel them forward even as her arms reached to spread the branches in front of them. His arms were occupied with holding her, so the pathway was entirely up to her. As they burst from the tree, he called forth his luminescent dark blue wings and they were soaring in the air.

Her breath leaving her in an exhilarated rush, Olivia couldn’t help but think that this was such a better way to leave a tree than falling out of it.

Chapter Two

Olivia enjoyed some time silently communing with the night creatures in Ini-herit’s backyard as the sun set later that day. Skye was engaged in a flying lesson with her Gloresti, Caleb, something that had proven quite necessary since she first learned to extend her wings. Although Olivia looked up into the darkening sky, she couldn’t see the glow of their wings. They must have moved beyond her line of sight.

James stood on the back porch discussing something with the Corgloresti and Elphresti elders, Ini-herit and Jabari. He kept a watchful eye on her as she strolled quietly around the property. Although Ini-herit’s house was strongly enchanted and probably safer than Fort Knox, James was always diligent when it came to her protection. Knowing this, she was careful not to stray too close to the forest, not wanting to cause him any undue concern.

The landscape around Ini-herit’s house reminded her of pictures she had seen of an English countryside. The large, stone manor home was situated on vast, sprawling lawns with magnificent landscaping. All around the house were thick green forests, making Skye say that it looked like an oversized version of the cottage belonging to the dwarfs in
Snow White
. Olivia couldn’t really argue. And the forests made excellent hunting grounds for Aurora. Indeed, that was exactly where Olivia’s panther friend was at the moment.

The woods were also excellent fodder for Olivia to test her abilities. She kept her mind open to the thoughts of the abundant wildlife thriving around them. It was actually quite challenging to filter the thoughts down to one single creature. For the most part, it felt like she was sitting in a crowded restaurant trying to hear someone talking to her from three tables away. Only Aurora’s thoughts were distinct to her, and Olivia could only hear those with the animal’s participation.

So it was with quite a bit of surprise that she felt a very strong presence in her mind from an animal near the edge of the woods not even fifteen feet from her. She could tell it was a large animal even though she couldn’t see it. She could also sense that it was hungry.

Pausing in her walk so she didn’t get unwisely close to the animal, she considered its thought pattern. She sensed that it was seeking to build a store of food so that it could hibernate, and it would then be dormant for a long while. Ini-herit had told her that there weren’t many bears in these particular woods, but she wondered if one happened to find its way to them. Frowning thoughtfully, she barely resisted the urge to take another step closer to the forest as she tried to get more from the animal’s thoughts. The strangeness of this presence concerned her. The last thing she wanted was for Aurora to get caught and injured or killed by a larger and more vicious predator.

Come closer.

She stiffened. Then curiosity overrode her instinctive fear as her gaze scoured the forest for some sign of what was communicating with her. This wasn’t a bear. It wasn’t any type of animal that she had read before, actually. The thoughts were much too clear and structured. Intelligent, even.

What are you?
she instinctively thought toward the creature.

Come here and find out.

The thought was intensely compelling. Hypnotic. She was surprised to find her feet moving to obey. She had taken five full steps closer to the forest before she caught herself. Realizing she was now only about six feet from the tree-line, she shook her head as if to clear it and turned to slowly move away, hoping not to provoke whatever creature it was into charging after her.

“James,” she said calmly, glancing carefully over her shoulder as she backed up a step, “There’s something—”

That was all she got out before she was violently yanked off her feet and the world flipped sideways.

Her breath left her in a sharp and painful burst as she hit the ground and somehow shot like an arrow into the forest. She couldn’t even muster up enough breath to scream. She felt something heavy and thick and unexpectedly warm wrapped around her arms and waist like a vise. Her body skidded rapidly along the forest floor, her exposed face, arms and shoulders suffering innumerable gouges from stones and debris. Because she had unbound her hair earlier, it caught on anything handy and pulled, leaving her scalp stinging painfully.

A couple of close brushes with thick tree trunks had her desperately trying to curl into a more protective position. Several leaps from the creature pulling her made her efforts in vain. As soon as her body left the ground and then hit it again, she went as limp as a rag doll.

It was several minutes of stunned shock before her brain cleared enough to even let her absolute terror through. She could only draw rapid, shallow breaths because her diaphragm was compressed by the tail of the creature that had grabbed her. Although she feared for the safety of her eyes with so much debris flying up around her, she dared to look as far ahead of her as she could to try and see what was dragging her. It was fruitless. The darkness within the forest was even more pervasive than it had been in Ini-herit’s backyard. All she saw was a large, solid mass moving impossibly fast.

She considered calling for Aurora with her mind, but feared she would be putting the cat in danger by drawing her near. So instead, she prayed.

Jean had raised her Catholic. They had attended Mass nearly every Sunday morning. Now, the Lord’s Prayer, a few Hail Marys—the entire rosary, for that matter—ran through her mind as rapidly as she was being dragged. Although she wouldn’t have considered herself a truly spiritual or religious person despite her hours logged in church, just reciting the lines in her mind served to help calm her.

Why are you doing this?
she thought toward the creature when she was coherent enough. If it was intelligent, she thought, she could possibly reason with it.
Please don’t do this! I mean you no harm. I’m not food!

The creature had closed its mind to her, however.

She saw the large shadow of another tree coming up and her eyes widened. There was no way she was going to avoid hitting it. Still, she tried, twisting quickly in one direction only to find the tail around her waist flicking her back. It was as though the creature was aiming her for the tree. Bracing herself, she squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered before she even made contact. When she did, she heard the snap of the bone in her right leg even before the nauseating pain blasted through her.

And this time, she found the breath to scream.

James ran through the forest at a speed faster than any human could ever pace. He had considered and dismissed the idea of flying above the trees to try and track Olivia that way. He already knew the foliage would be too thick and the darkness too heavy for him to find her from the air.

Her trail on the ground, however, couldn’t have been clearer, especially once he cast a ball of light to lead his way.

She had been taken by a kragen. The creatures had been crafted by the Scultresti before the creation of the Estilorian plane. Because of this nature of their origins, all of them had transferred to this plane while none of them remained on the human one. After hearing some of Olivia’s tales from the human plane, he had come to believe that humans had crafted fables and stories about the kragens after the creatures’ removal from their existence, much as they had created human myths, legends and biblical stories about the Estilorians.

They called the animals dragons.

He hadn’t thought to mention kragens to Olivia. There were so few of them remaining that they were rare to see. How one had gotten into the forests around Ini-herit’s home was puzzling, but James had to believe this one had lived here unnoticed for some time. Kragens only had to feed once per quarter-century, after all.

But they usually ate large mammals like bear and elk. Never had he heard of a kragen attacking an Estilorian.

Even as he ran, his eyes yards ahead on the path of displaced foliage marking where Olivia had been dragged, he thought,
But Olivia isn’t full Estilorian.

The fact that Olivia had been taken by the animal combined with the stories she shared with him from the human plane so often filled with dragon violence toward humans led him to conclude that kragens had a taste for human blood.

Ini-herit and Jabari were right behind him. The only sounds were of their combined breathing and the thrashing noises they made as they ran. James occasionally spotted strands of hair or a patch of blood on the path they followed. He also saw remnants of pink fabric that had obviously shredded from Olivia’s gown. One of her sandals was still on the ground in Ini-herit’s backyard. She had been pulled so violently off her feet that she left the shoe behind.

He hadn’t ever been so stunned in his entire being as when he watched the kragen’s long tail whip from the trees and snatch her.

Now, his heart pounded up into his throat due to a combination of fear and exertion. He knew the kragen would take her to its lair before it killed her. It would also…tenderize her first. She wouldn’t have an unbroken bone in her body by the time the creature was ready to devour her.

As that thought entered his mind, he heard Olivia’s anguished scream. He didn’t know how, but he somehow found it in him to run even faster.

Olivia’s vision went from red to black and back to red as the agony from her broken leg pulsed through her. But she fought against the pain, no stranger to broken bones.

The creature’s blazing trail through the forest continued unchecked. She began to actively fight against the cinching tail around her arms and waist, hoping to somehow generate enough room to wriggle free. The texture of the tail felt unusual against her skin. Smooth, but with some kind of residue clinging to it that kept it from being slippery. Unfortunately, the creature sensed her efforts to free herself and simply tightened its hold.

She stopped squirming as she lost all feeling in her hands.

“James!” she cried after she gathered a breath, knowing he would be chasing after her. She imagined it could only help to have more clues to guide him in her rescue. “James! I’m over here!”

She continued to shout for him as her breath permitted, not knowing what else to do. Their rapid trek through the forest probably only lasted about fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours. She knew she had never been this deep into the woods and had no idea where they were.

They reached a tall, rocky outcropping and the creature began climbing at an astounding pace. Olivia choked back another scream as the jagged edges of the rock sliced the skin of her back and legs and what remained of her dress. Her broken leg flared in renewed agony with every bump. She couldn’t imagine how the creature wasn’t injuring itself on the sharp surface. Where was it taking her?

“Olivia!”

She heard James calling her name and it made her light-headed with hope. “James—up here!”

Her eyes moved down even as the creature crested a high crag and she felt herself lifted into the air several feet off the rock. She spotted the ball of light a second before James emerged from the forest with Ini-herit and Jabari right behind him. Because they had reached a clearing, they extended their wings and headed toward her.

She observed all of this even as she was once again slammed down. This time, the pain proved unbearable. Darkness overtook her.

James took flight the moment he could. He caught Olivia’s gaze an instant before the kragen used its vicious tail to slam her mercilessly to the ground. Her complete lifelessness after the brutal action had panic flaring.

He drew his sword as he neared the kragen. It issued a chilling cry as it continued to climb toward its lair, intent on getting its meal safely home. Then it once again lifted Olivia with the intent to heave her against the rocks a second time. Although the behavior was instinctive for the creature, it drove James to violence that he would otherwise loathe to visit on an animal, especially one as rare as this.

It took only one well-aimed strike of his sword to end the creature’s life. Although the dragons in Olivia’s stories were heavily scaled and armored, kragens actually had skin similar to that of snakes. It yielded easily to the sharp steel of his blade.